In the Garden: With a trendy pot of summer flowers in mind

If you intend to plant some beautiful containers for your patio, deck or balcony, the first thing you need to think about is exposure — will the pots sit in full sun or shade of a combination of the two.

Ideally, you want bright morning light in the morning, then filtered light from noon to early afternoon, then more complete shade when the sun is at its most intense in mid-to-late afternoon and finally a little more open, soft light for early evening.

Before going shopping for your plants, first check out the place where you intend to place your pots and give some thought to the exposure.

Think about the course of the sun through the day and note the degree of direct sun or total shade the plants will be in.

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For part-shade to full, light shade, you can make excellent use of top performance plants such as ipomoea, browallia (notably the Endless cultivars), begonia (particularly the Belleconia and Surefire types), double impatiens, coleus, trailing fuchsia, wishbone flowers (Torena hybrids such as ‘Catalina Gilded Grape, Midnight Blue and Summer Wave) and lobularia (notably ‘Snow Princess’).

Sedum Lemon Coral looks great on its own in a container.Proven Winners /
Vancouver Sun

Hostas are the best perennial for pots in shady spots. They are available in some great foliage colours — bright yellow to various shades of blue to rich creamy green variegations — and they look fabulous all the time and need very little maintenance.

For more sunny spots, there are a few trendy plants, such as Sedum mexicanum ‘Lemon Coral’ with its lovely feathery lime green foliage, new Punch forms of calibrachoa such as Blackberry Punch and Pomegranate Punch, Mecardonia ‘GoldDust’), lobularia, and some interesting grasses such as Fibre Optic and Toffee Twist.

Pelargoniums and petunias are familiar and reliable sun-lovers and you have an amazing selection of colours from which to choose, but for something a little more exotic you could try filling a container with purple or plain green aeoniums or stuffing a pot with gerbera hybrids from the Hello series — Miss Scarlet, Magentamen, Sunshine or Pumpkin: all exotic colours.

If you have a long trough or window box in a part-sun/part shade spot, you could try creating what is being called the Rosewood look. Your trough planter or windowbox should be at least (50 cm) 20 inches long.

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